It’s not easy every day to be the little ecologist in the family. L’écologiste de bureau. The ecologist of the group of friends who has changed a lot, sometimes a little too much for the tastes of some.
It’s not always easy to talk about ecology or politics without raising your voice. You never know how to do it. You lose patience, we lose patience, and it ends in a dialogue of the deaf. So this letter is an attempt to set the record straight. Start again on a good basis. In writing, with a clear head, the message may have a better chance of being heard.
First of all, let’s clarify one point. This approach is not intended to point the finger at any one person, group of people, or even a generation. The goal is to dialogue, not to castigate. We need you, and we can’t do it without you.
We feel that it is sometimes difficult to discuss ecological issues with you, more than with other people. However, the goal is not to accuse. Or to look for people to blame for the last 30 years. We really have better things to do. Yes, some of you screwed up. Have consumed excessively, without thinking of the consequences. But we screwed up too. We too grew up always wanting the latest gadget, the biggest TV and the biggest car. Flying to the other side of the world and taking the best photo to collect likes on Instagram. It is exactly this way of life that we must urgently abandon.
In recent months, we have heard the worst excuses for not changing. It’s always other people’s fault, or other people’s fault for changing first. This too is no longer possible. Climate change is a physical problem that doesn’t care about moods. We have entered a race against time where everyone must not only participate, but win. Unlike the usual competition, if the winner does not help the others, he will also have lost.
I don’t need to remind you what a critical situation we are in. The Amazon, the famous lung of the Earth (not true), emits more CO2 than it absorbs. The glaciers that we had the chance to observe during our vacations for 20 years are melting at a record speed. Biodiversity has been in free fall for 40 years. In California, because of the droughts, they transport salmon in trucks to put them in another river. What more is needed?
No one is safe, everyone will be concerned and affected. Without drastic changes, it will be 50 degrees in France before 2050. Nobody wants to know that. So we ask you 3 things.
First, listen to us. The way is not always perfect, but if we repeat to you that the situation is serious and that we must change, it is not by pleasure: it is by necessity. What we repeat is not an opinion. These are the conclusions of decades of scientific research. Scientists have been warning about the situation for decades and we must do everything we can to rectify the situation before the only thing they have to say is “we warned you”. This cry of alarm is not a war of egos to see who is right or wrong. Rest assured, we would prefer that all this was false and that climate change had nothing to do with human activity. Because no, all this is not natural. This is false. Even if the neighbor, Jean-Michel Cyclesolaire, heard it on CNEWS. This has no scientific basis.
Second, understand us. If you listen to us, you will understand why we are uncomfortable in this business that contributes to accelerate the destruction of the living. Why the definition of success that we have learned over the past 50 years no longer makes sense. You will understand why we can no longer accept that you leave for a week on the other side of the world and that on your return, you are looking at the next cruise in the Mediterranean. That you have worked all your life to ensure our comfort, we understand perfectly. But if this comfort is based on the exploitation of living beings, or other living beings (in any form), we no longer want it. It can’t go on like this.
Finally, and this is the logical continuation of the first two points, we would like you to make an effort not to push the nail in. The situation is catastrophic, but we still have the opportunity to make this planet sustainable. For you, for us, for our children. We can only achieve this if we all make an effort together. It is unthinkable to do it without a part of the population that, we are sure, loves us and does not want to leave an unliveable planet. Also, you will understand that it is no longer possible to say that you love us and that you would do everything for us and our children, while continuing to live as if there was no tomorrow. This freedom through these trips to the other side of the world, these cruises, the meat at noon and evening, this indispensable heated seat… This should be the exception, not the norm. This freedom has a price, it is the future of your children and your grandchildren.
We hope that this message will not go unheeded. There is no such thing as a perfect ecologist, or a unique ecologist. But we all need to realize the magnitude of the problem, talk to each other, and think together about how to improve the situation. Don’t wake up one day and have the look of a child asking you if you knew, and what you did then to change the situation. We need your help. We can’t do it without you.
